Kent District Library (MI)'s Blog, page 61

Clearing Up Library Boundaries

Local libraries have been getting a lot of media attention recently as we are all struggling to provide great service with less funding. Many West Michigan residents may be unsure which library system is which. We understand that library boundaries can be a bit confusing.

Like school districts, library residency is based on where you live and pay property taxes. KDL serves over 395,000 residents from all areas of Kent County except the cities of Grand Rapids and Cedar Springs, the village of Sparta, and Solon and Sparta townships. Residents of those areas are served by our neighbor libraries.

In the last three years, KDL has cut over $1.6 million in our expenses in order to continue living within our means. To do so, we’ve reduced staffing costs by not replacing certain positions, we’ve reduced our collection budget and deferred much needed technology upgrades, but KDL has not laid off any staff.

Use the map below to get a more clear understanding of KDL’s service area, and please let us know if you have any questions. Click the map to increase its size:

 

Read All About Keeping Backyard Chickens

Since I started keeping chickens seven years ago, many others have too, or at the very least have given it some thought. I remember the day I was looking at the Murray McMurray website, creating my order for 25 day-old chicks. I finally narrowed it down to three different breeds, and now all I had to do was hit the “submit order” button. “Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked myself. “This is going to change your life,” I thought. Well, I submitted the order and in April of 2007, I picked up 27 peeping fuzzballs at the post office. And, yes, my life was changed.

The best and most important advice I can give is “Do Your Homework!” READ books, magazines and blogs. TALK to folks who have already taken the plunge, and learn from their mistakes.

Books:

Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds
The Complete Guide to Poultry Breeds: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply
The Chicken Whisperer’s Guide to Keeping Chickens
A Chicken in Every Yard: The Urban Farm Store’s Guide to Chicken Keeping

Good Resources:

Backyard Poultry Magazine
BackYard Chickens.com
The Chicken Chick
MSU Extension

 

Michigan Authors: Live Live Live

William Olsen and Jack Ridl

Join us for a reading and discussion of one of Michigan’s 20 Notable Books with the editors of Poetry in Michigan / Michigan in Poetry. Tour sponsored by the Library of Michigan.

Monday, June 2, 6:30 PM – Sand Lake / Nelson Township Branch

 

 

Sue Merrell

The Grandville-based author and former Grand Rapids Press journalist will host a reading and signing of her new book, Full Moon Friday, the next title in her Jordan Daily News Mystery series.

Thursday, June 12, 6:30 PM – Grandville Branch

 

 

Goodreads Chat with Kristina Riggle

Riggle will be on KDL’s Goodreads group page, answering your questions about her writing. Riggle is the author of five novels, including Real Life & Liars and The Whole Golden World.

Wednesday, June 11, 12:00 PM – online

 

 

Goodreads Chat with D.E. Johnson

Johnson will be on KDL’s Goodreads group page, answering your questions about his writing. He is the author of Detroit Shuffle and other books in the Will Anderson series, set in Detroit in the early 1900s.

Monday, July 14, 6:00 PM – online

 

 

Goodreads Chat with Lisa Rose Starner

Starner will be on KDL’s Goodreads group page, answering your questions about her writing. She is the author of Grand Rapids Food: A Culinary Revolution and a forthcoming book focused on edible and medicinal plants of the Midwest.

Thursday, August 28, 10:00 AM – online

 

 

Summer Programs for Foodies

Foraging: Wild Plants for Food and Medicine

Join author, herbalist and forager Lisa Rose Starner to learn about local plants and “weeds” that can be used for food and herbal medicine.

Click here for dates, times and locations.

Designing a New Kitchen Garden

You can have a very productive garden even if you have only a small area to work with! Connie Hanson of Grand Shire Farm will present design ideas for raised beds, container gardening, companion planting and information on vegetables and herbs that grow well in small spaces.

Click here for dates, times and locations.

The Art and Science of Canning

Annette McBride explains the science behind canning fruits and vegetables at home and demonstrates how to get started with basic canning.

Click here for dates, times and locations.

 Photo: nwitimes.com

Early Lit Bits: Book Review — “Some Bugs”

Some Bugs by Angela DiTerlizzi

Bugs are hopping, gliding, swimming and hiding in this new picture book. With a bouncy rhythm and colorful illustrations, Some Bugs is sure to appeal to the junior bug hunter in your house. As you read together, pause and talk about each action word. Ask your child if he or she can curl up in a ball or flutter through the room. Have you seen bugs like this outside or at the park? Grab a magnifying glass and see what bugs you can find in the grass. This book even has a handy bug guide to help with identification. Talking and playing like bugs are both great ways to get your child ready to read!

–Liz W. at KDL’s Plainfield Township Branch

 

 

This article originally appeared in our Early Lit Bits eNewsletter. Read the most recent issue online or sign up to receive this monthly update highlighting early literacy tips and resources for parents and caregivers.

 

Go Wild with these Youth Booklists!

             

Are you ready to read this summer? Go wild with Mr. Tiger (but avoid swimming in a fountain without your top hat), make tacos for lunch and feed them to imaginary dragons (leave out the jalapeños!) and help solve the case of the murdered hippo! Check out these fantastic youth booklists that invite your child to read, play, laugh and discover.

Mysteries for Fifth Graders

Hey Buddy, Take a Hike

Given that West Michigan (specifically, the city of Lowell) serves as the headquarters for the 4,600-mile, seven-state North Country Scenic Trail, it seemed fitting that we team up with that organization of hiking enthusiasts for a series of programs in June.

The National Park Service Presents the North County Trail

The series kicks off with a presentation on the trail’s history and features by Mark Weaver, National Park Service Superintendent of the trail.

Monday, June 9, 7:00 PM – Cascade Township Branch

Monday, June 16, 6:30 PM – Englehardt Branch

Trail Hiking 101

Chuck Hayden, of the West Michigan Chapter of the North Country Trail Association, will tell you everything you need to know about boots, poles, safety and etiquette to begin your trail-hiking journey.

Tuesday, June 17, 7:00 PM – Cascade Township Branch

The North Country Trail and the Kitchen Sink

Author and Ludington Daily News columnist Joan Young, the first woman to complete the North Country Trail, will share tales of her experiences.

Tuesday, June 24, 7:00 PM at the Cascade Township Branch

 

KDL Top Ten — History Military

In honor of Memorial Day, this week’s Top Ten list features ten of the most popular books in our History Military section. To view these titles, click on the link to your Top Ten list.

Three New DVDs

Three new DVDs that have been added to our system recently come from three different countries and represent a wide range of serious storytelling. Here’s a brief rundown on them:

William Faulkner is widely regarded as one of the great American writers of the 20th century, and his books have often proven difficult to adapt to the screen, owing to his sometimes modernist and difficult writing style. “As I Lay Dying,” directed by the actor and director James Franco, tackles this issue head on in his adaptation of Faulkner’s 1930 novel about a family in the rural South taking their mother’s body to be buried in another town. Employing a split screen at times, Franco tries to approximate the original text of the novel, which is told not by a single narrator, but by all the characters involved in the story. And the story is a dramatic one—some might even say melodramatic. A flooded bridge, a severely broken leg, fire and a decaying body are among the many terrors encountered on the way to the wife and mother’s grave. Full of black humor and some strange incidents, the movie won’t be to everyone’s liking, but is certainly worth checking out if you are at all interested in American literature. Franco has also adapted another Faulkner novel, “The Sound and the Fury,” which will be released later this year. (Rated R)

“A Touch of Sin” comes from the Chinese director Zhangke Jia and tells four intense stories of modern China, all of them involving anger and the loss of dignity that can come to the fore when corruption and immorality stretch ordinary people to their breaking point. All the stories involve violence of some kind (sometimes explicitly so), and, despite the foreign setting, will ring as sadly familiar to Americans who pay any attention to the news in this country. The director pulls no punches in his bravura presentation here, and, thankfully for this viewer, presents an ever so slight spot of brightness at the end. (Unrated, but the equivalent of an R rating.)

“Letters to Father Jacob,” running at only about 75 minutes, is the story of a blind priest in Finland and a woman named Leila who has been pardoned for a crime the nature of which we only find out at the end of the film. In this lovely and touching story of a deeply spiritual man and a troubled woman, we follow Leila as she is hired to transcribe replies to the many letters that Father Jacob receives at his remote rectory. Suspicious at first of his piety, she nevertheless chooses to stay, and the story, with all the elegance of an old tale, takes us to a satisfying conclusion without the maudlin manipulation you might find in some other films that seek to tell a life-affirming story. (Unrated but equivalent of a PG rating.)

 

Three new DVDs

Three new DVDs that have been added to our system recently come from three different countries and represent a wide range of serious story telling. Here’s a brief rundown on them:

William Faulkner is widely regarded as one of the great American writers of the 20th century, and his books have often proven difficult to adapt to the screen, owing to his sometimes modernist and difficult writing style. “As I lay Dying”, directed by the actor and director James Franco, tackles this issue head on in his adaptation of Faulkner’s 1930 novel about a family in the rural South taking their mother’s body to be buried in another town. Employing a split screen at times, Franco tries to approximate the original text of the novel, which is told not by a single narrator, but by all the characters involved in the story. And the story is a dramatic one—some might even say melodramatic. A flooded bridge, a severely broken leg, fire and a decaying body are among the many terrors encountered on the way to the wife and mother’s grave. Full of black humor and some strange incidents, the movie won’t be to everyone’s liking, but is certainly worth checking out if you are at all interested in American literature. Franco has also adapted another Faulkner novel, “The Sound and the Fury”, which will be released later this year. (Rated R)

“A Touch of Sin” comes from the Chinese director Zhangke Jia and tells four intense stories of modern China, all of them involving anger and the loss of dignity that can come to the fore when corruption and immorality stretch ordinary people to their breaking point. All the stories involve violence of some kind (sometimes explicitly so), and, despite the foreign setting, will ring as sadly familiar to Americans who pay any attention to the news in this country. The director pulls no punches in his bravura presentation here, and, thankfully for this viewer, presents an ever so slight spot of brightness at the end. (Unrated, but the equivalent of an R rating.)

“Letters to Father Jacob”, running at only about 75 minutes, is the story of a blind priest in Finland and a woman named Leila who has been pardoned for a crime the nature of which we only find out at the end of the film. In this lovely and touching story of a deeply spiritual man and a troubled woman, we follow Leila as she is hired to transcribe replies to the many letters that Father Jacob receives at his remote rectory. Suspicious at first of his piety, she nevertheless chooses to stay, and the story, with all the elegance of an old tale, takes us to a satisfying conclusion without the maudlin manipulation you might find in some other films that seek to tell a life-affirming story. (Unrated but equivalent of a PG rating.)